Myth Beyond Heaven

At this moment, a whisper of movement caught Yun Lintian’s attention.

An old man, his body withered to near-skeletal thinness, crawled from the ruins of a temple. His eyes, though clouded with age, burned with desperate clarity when they landed on Yun Lintian.

“You… you aren’t from here.” The old man’s voice was a rasp.

Yun Lintian knelt beside him. “What happened here?”

The old man coughed blood. “The gods… they grew bored of peace. Said equilibrium was stagnation.” His bony fingers clutched at Yun Lintian’s sleeve. “They made a game of it—who could create the most beautiful despair.”

Yun Lintian’s golden-black eyes flashed.

A game.

Millions of worlds suffering because the Primordial Gods wanted entertainment.

The old man gasped his final words. “They call it… the Grand Desolation.”

Then his body stilled.

Yun Lintian closed the man’s eyes gently before standing.

The God Slaying Sword pulsed in his grip, its hunger mirroring his own.

This timeline’s gods had forfeited their right to exist.

Yun Lintian stepped into the celestial realm, his aura burning away the gloom like sunlight through rot.

The God of Plague noticed him first.

“Ah! A visitor!” The god’s bloated face split into a grin. “Come to join our—”

Yun Lintian didn’t let him finish.

The God Slaying Sword moved.

Puff!

A black slash cut through reality itself, severing the God of Plague’s connection to the heavenly laws before he could even scream. His body crumbled to ash, his divine essence ripped away and absorbed into Yun Lintian’s being.

The other gods turned, their amusement vanishing.

The Goddess of Famine’s eyes widened. “That sword—!”

Yun Lintian was already upon her.

His fist shattered her divine core before she could react, the impact sending shockwaves through the celestial palace. She had just enough time to realize her end before her power was devoured whole.

The remaining gods scrambled like frightened birds.

Too late.

Yun Lintian moved like judgment incarnate—every strike precise, every motion calculated to maximize suffering. He didn’t just kill them.

He unmade them.

The God of Despair tried to flee, his form dissolving into shadows.

Yun Lintian clenched his fist.

Space itself folded inward, crushing the god back into physical form.

“Wait! I can—”

Yun Lintian grabbed his face.

And burned him alive with golden flames.

The god’s screams lasted exactly as long as Yun Lintian permitted.

When the last god fell, the timeline shuddered.

The oppressive gloom began lifting—slowly, as if the world itself was remembering what light felt like.

Yun Lintian stood amidst the ruins of the celestial palace, his sword dripping divine blood that evaporated before it could touch the ground.

This wasn’t just another hunt.

This was a revelation.

If the Primordial Gods could fall so far in one timeline…

What stopped others from doing the same?

Yun Lintian stood amidst the dissipating essence of the fallen gods, his golden-black eyes narrowing as he absorbed their powers.

Unlike the pure divine energy he had consumed before, this essence was tainted—thick with malice, despair, and a hunger that mirrored Yin’s corruption.

“This isn’t the Creator’s power.”

The realization struck him like a blade.

The Creator’s energy was balanced—life and death, creation and destruction intertwined. But this? This was pure destruction, a force that sought only to unravel.

Yun Lintian’s mind raced.

Yin had been sealed before the Primordial Gods’ creation. It shouldn’t have been possible for him to influence them.

Yet here was the proof.

“Unless…”

His thoughts turned to Ren Yuan, the God of Heaven’s inheritor. The man had absorbed a strand of Yin’s power to enhance himself. At the time, Yun Lintian had assumed it was a simple power boost.

But what if it was more?

What if Yin had used Ren Yuan as a conduit—not just to escape his seal, but to spread his corruption across the timelines?

Yun Lintian frowned slightly.

So, this was Yin’s game?

Yun Lintian’s divine sense expanded, piercing through the layers of reality to examine the tainted energy more closely.

The corruption wasn’t just surface-level. It had fused with the gods’ very cores, twisting their divine laws into something grotesque. The God of Plague hadn’t just spread disease—he had reveled in it. The Goddess of Famine hadn’t just withheld food—she had fed on starvation itself.

This wasn’t natural degradation.

This was deliberate.

Yin didn’t just influence them. He remade them.

The implications were staggering. If Yin could corrupt Primordial Gods in one timeline, he could do it in others.

And if that were true…

How many timelines had already fallen?

How many gods had become monsters without realizing it?

At this moment, a flicker of movement caught Yun Lintian’s attention.

Amidst the fading divine essence, a wisp of black energy resisted absorption—a stubborn fragment of corruption that writhed like a living thing.

Yun Lintian seized it with his will, forcing it into a visible form.

The energy twisted, forming a symbol he recognized instantly.

The Mark of Uncreation.

Yin’s signature.

Yun Lintian’s eyes gleamed. This wasn’t just corruption.

It was a message.

A challenge.

Yin knew Yun Lintian was hunting the gods.

And he was mocking him.

Yun Lintian crushed the wisp in his fist, letting its remnants dissolve into nothingness.

He seemed to figure out what Yin was trying to do. It was simple, he just wanted to slow Yun Lintian’s progress down, opposite to Nian Shi who wanted to speed up.

It was as if he, Yun Lintian, had become a toy in the power struggle between Yin and Nian Shi.

Having realized this, Yun Lintian wasn’t angry in the slightest. On the contrary, he gladly accepted whatever came to him. Whether it was creation or destruction, it won’t hinder his progress to reach his goal—to become something beyond the Creator.

That was right. Yun Lintian no longer aimed at the Creator’s level but to surpass it.

After fighting Nian Shi previously, he had already known that it was impossible for him to defeat both Nian Shi and Yin by just reaching the Creator Realm. He must become something else… something beyond their comprehension.

Yun Lintian raised his head slightly. His eyes gleamed with a cold light. He had walked on the path someone paved for him for his whole life. Even if he tried to control his own fate, he would come back on the path without knowing.

But this time… this time, he wanted to completely control his own fate.

Without hesitation, Yun Lintian tore the space in front of him open and stepped into it…